All-year school calendar recieves positive feedback

Ian Conner doesn't think it's fair his neighborhood buddies get to stay outside to play basketball when he has to go indoors to meet his early bedtime. Conner, 14, attends a school that operates on a balanced calendar, Lincoln Elementary School, and his summer vacation is shorter than most kids in the area.

Many districts across the state are choosing to adopt a balanced calendar, also known as year-round school. The calendar creates a shorter summer, an earlier start date and more frequent and longer breaks throughout the school year. Indiana schools opting for the alternate calendar still have students in session for 180 days, just at different intervals.

Conner's mother, Michelle Shuler, said her son loves year-round school and the only time he gripes is at the end of summer. Shuler, 37, is happy her son's school uses the balanced calendar because she enjoys spending more

time with him throughout the year.

"I think it's brilliant," she said. "They don't have the long breaks, so they retain more, and the summers aren't as long so they don't get bored. He's always ready to go back to school when it's time to go back."

Shuler admitted the only negative for some parents may be day care, but the three intersessions students can participate in over breaks teach topics not in the regular curriculum — space, ocean, rain forest, astronomy — and keeps their minds growing.

EVSC Superintendent David Smith said about 70 percent of Lincoln students take advantage of the intersessions.

"Students continually are engaged more in the learning activity with the balanced calendar," Smith said.

Lincoln, a kindergarten through eighth grade school, has been on a balanced calendar for more than a decade, EVSC spokeswoman Marsha Jackson said. EVSC has schools that operate on different calendars based on a particular school's community needs.

The district has three equity schools — McGary Middle School, Evans School, Delaware Elementary — that operate on calendars longer than 180 days. The agreement was made in 2009, each school can add up to 20 more days of classroom instruction to the school year, plus five professional development "data days," when teachers learn to analyze and use data to address student needs and boost achievement.

Lincoln second grade teacher Gloria Baker has experience teaching on both a traditional and a balanced calendar. She prefers the latter because there's less time for students to forget learning material. Baker said her students don't complain of being cheated out of a summer break.

"I like the calendar, it really does work for me," Baker said. "Our families, our school, our teachers, we're used to the calendar."

Both the Metropolitan District of Mount Vernon and Warrick County School Corp. run on traditional calendars. The two superintendents said the upside of the year-round schedule is reducing the time students are away from school, which reinforces retention.

Warrick County Superintendent Brad Schneider said students can forget a lot of information during the summer.

"And with the traditional calendar, it's commonplace for teachers have to start and kind of do some review work the first several weeks of school just to get the students' minds back into school and learning," Schneider said.

He admitted the traditional calendar is an outdated, agricultural calendar to have students home for planting and harvest season. However, Schneider believes people traditionally do not welcome change and steer clear if possible.

"Parents went to school under the traditional calendar and some of them would see that you're taking away a child's summer," he said.

It's been more than 20 years since any major changes have been made to the Warrick County school calendar, according to Schneider.

"I don't think it's anything that is going to happen any time soon," Schneider said. "But then again, as leaders and educators, I think we have to keep an open mind and as more and more research comes in on the balanced calendar and they can show gains in student learning, then I think that's something school boards and communities and parents have to consider."

Mount Vernon Superintendent Tom Kopatich said he would consider an alternative schedule if research proved it was more beneficial for students.

"When you have a traditional calendar, changing that calendar so much will be very difficult unless that type of research is out there," he said.

Kopatich explained he understands the positives and negatives, but admitted he hasn't seen the research that proves it's the best option for students.

"I think if it comes back to show us it's more beneficial for children educationally, I think we would start those (community) talks and then look at what it would do for us," Kopatich said.

Both Kopatich and Schneider acknowledged many businesses rely on student labor in the summer, and shortening that break might create a challenge for students trying to get hired.

As far as benefits, Kopatich believes year-round school may be easier to implement in elementary levels because after-school jobs aren't in jeopardy. He believes more instructional days would be a plus, but then the problem of cost arises.

In Shuler's mind, every school should operate on a balanced calendar to eliminate the lesson-eroding summer break.

"When he (Ian Conner) starts back, it seems like they start on the page they left off on," Shuler said. "They don't have to do much review, they just get right in and keep going."